Cody Rhodes says the cost of being him is not fully knowing who he is. Rhodes gave the answer on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, in an episode posted October 22, when Van Vliet asked what he thought had been the cost of being Cody Rhodes.
"I think the obvious cost of being me, and again not trying to get melodramatic, is not always knowing who I am," Rhodes said. He tied the answer to the business he works in. "I have been in a performative industry. I have been in a very carny industry where you think about maybe selling a ticket, and over time I realized that's not as valuable as perhaps selling an experience."
Rhodes, who is 41, then put his age into it. "But I think a lot of young men might have had a better idea of who they were around 30, and here I am at 41 finally having kind of gotten a hold of, okay, this is who I think I am, and this is how I'd like to live my life," he said. He closed the thought by repeating it: "So I think the cost of being me is, in a weird way, not fully knowing who I am."
His career has run through several distinct personas. Dashing Cody Rhodes debuted on the June 25, 2010 episode of SmackDown and ended after Rey Mysterio broke his nose on the January 21, 2011 episode. Stardust debuted June 16, 2014 on Raw, with Rhodes teaming with Goldust, and Rhodes asked for his WWE release on May 21, 2016. It was granted the next day. On April 7, 2024, at WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia, Rhodes beat Roman Reigns to win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, WWE.com reported.
Rhodes is not the champion now. Wrestling Inc. reported in October that Sami Zayn defended the Undisputed WWE Championship against Rhodes, whom it described as a former champion. The Insight interview also covered Street Fighter, in which Rhodes plays Guile, a project that opened October 16.
Rhodes has not announced anything further on the comments. The quote stands as his own answer to Van Vliet's question in the October 22 interview.
